The assignee of the present invention designs and manufactures spacecraft for communications and broadcast services. Market demands for such spacecraft have imposed increasingly stringent requirements on spacecraft payload capacity. To meet these demands, higher power spacecraft with multiple antenna apertures and increased radiating surface area for heat dissipation are desirable.
Launch vehicle compatibility is a second requirement faced by a spacecraft designer. The increased performance requirements are only advantageously met if compatibility with conventional, commercially available launch vehicles is maintained. Accordingly, a spacecraft, as configured for launch, is desirably made compatible with the mass and fairing envelope constraints of such launch vehicles as, for example, Ariane, Atlas, Proton, Falcon and Sea Launch.
Thus, there is a need for a high capacity spacecraft that is compatible with launch vehicle constraints.